BOOKS: Eating Animals

September 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

Eating Animals
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Little, Brown & Co. (1271 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2009.
341 pages, hardcover. $25.99.

What most clearly sets Eating Animals apart from the bulk of animal rights literature is the perspective from which it is written–not the firm, impassioned mindset of a longtime activist, but that of a lifelong omnivore engaged in his first thorough exploration of the vegetarian debate. Jonathan Safran Foer’s catalyst for writing Eating Animals was not any conviction as to the merit (or lack thereof) of a vegetarian lifestyle, but rather the birth of the author’s first son, and the necessity of making responsible dietary choices on his behalf and raising him with a consistent moral framework. Read more

The 30-day Vegan Challenge

September 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

The 30-day Vegan Challenge
by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Random House (1745 Broadway,
New York, NY 10019), 2011.
336 pages, paperback. $22.00.

The title of this new book, The 30-day Vegan Challenge, could be the name of a grueling road race for non-flesh eaters. Instead it’s a practical guide for vegans or vegan wannabes. I did my review on a full stomach because the recipe for a chickpea burger tempted me to chomp down rather than read. The book starts out defining “vegan,” a word coined in 1944 by British animal activist Donald Watson (1910-2005). Watson, who founded the Vegan Society, defined veganism as a conscious decision to avoid expoliting animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Read more

AHA brass shown at meatfest while Hurricane Irene devastates the Northeast

September 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

LOS ANGELES–What did the American Humane Association do while Irene became the first hurricane to hit New Jersey since 1903, and did more damage in Vermont than any disaster since the Flood of 1927?

On August 26, 2011, six days after Irene hit the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, but one day before Irene struck North Carolina, the AHA announced that “Even as the Red Star 82-foot truck drives toward North Carolina from its Denver home base, AHA President Dr. Robin R. Ganzert waits out the hurricane on her North Carolina farm.”
Said Ganzert, “It’s very important that families, and especially children, know that we will help keep their animals safe and sound.” Read more

Most of the Chinese dog meat traffic is already illegal, lawyers contend

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

Beijing–Most of the Chinese traffic in dogs for human
consumption is already illegal, and therefore should be stopped
immediately, without awaiting passage of a national humane law,
attorneys Lu Xun, An Xiang, and Cai Chunhang told a two-hour press
conference convened in Beijing on June 15, 2011 by the Shangshan
Animal Foundation.
The lawyers joined China Veterinary Association Pet Clinic
Branch vice president Liu Lang to discuss the implications for rabies
control resulting from investigation of an incident on April 14,
2011, when Beijing activists intercepted and eventually rescued
approximately 500 dogs from a truck transporting them from Henan
province to dog meat restaurants in Jilin province.

“We screwed up,” admits VegNews after QuarryGirl exposé of use of meat photos

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

HOLLYWOOD, SAN FRANCISCO–“Do you like
looking at pictures of meat?” opened the
Hollywood vegan blog www.QuarryGirl.com on April
13, 2011.
“How about a juicy beef burger, covered
in egg mayonnaise with cow fat dripping off?”
QuarryGirl continued. “Perhaps some soft, meaty
chunks of chicken breast in chicken stock and
cream? What about a pork sausage, oozing in pig
fat, fresh from the slaughterhouse?
“You can find all this in the nation’s
premier print and online vegan magazine,
VegNews,” QuarryGirl charged. “Veg News has
written tens (possibly hundreds) of articles
extolling the virtues of a vegan lifestyle,
while purchasing rock-bottom priced stock photos
of meat, eggs, dairy, and other completely
non-vegan things.”

Anti-rabies Philippine state governor speaks out against eating dogs

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:
Iloilo, The Philippines—“Let us learn to be responsible dog owners and once and for all, let us avoid eating dog meat,” pleaded Iloilo provincial governor Arthur Defensor Sr. through the Panay News after the January 8, 2011 rabies death of a 38-year-old mother of two.

The dead woman and her sister were bitten by a rabid puppy on June 22, 2010. The sister and three other family members received post-exposure vaccination, but the dead woman refused the treatment. Read more

Coffee fad revives civet farming (long version)

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010

DENPASAR, HANOI–Just seven years after
China banned civet farming because of the
association of civet consumption with more than
800 human deaths from Sudden Acute Respiratory
Syndrome, a vogue for pricy civet coffee has
brought the industry back perhaps bigger than
ever–and certainly in many more places.
Sold to coffee snobs as kopi luwak, the
Indonesian word for it, civet coffee is brewed
from the beans that civets excrete after eating
coffee berries, one of their favorite foods.
Civet coffee is by reputation stronger and
usually more aromatic than most coffees.
Collecting and salvaging the excreted
beans from wild civets is so laborious that civet
coffee, known for centuries, has historically
been so costly to produce as to be consumed only
in small amounts by the very rich and jaded. But
civet farming in coffee-growing country has
brought civet coffee within occasionally reach of
the merely affluent–at prices of from $50 to
$100 a cup.

Whole Foods introduces multi-tiered animal welfare certification

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:
AUSTIN, WASHINGTON D.C.– The 300-store
Whole Foods Markets chain and the Animal
Compassion Foundation, begun by Whole Foods
founder John Mackey, on November 15, 2010
introduced a new system of identifying how
animals slaughtered for meat were raised. The
first standards are for pigs, cattle, and
chickens raised for meat. After a trial interval
the system is to be extended to laying hens and
dairy animals.

Coffee fad revives civet farming

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

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